South by Southwest may be over, but Austin still hums along to its own quirky beat. And while there’s always something happening in the many hip hubs in this laid-back Texas town — a young singer-songwriter at the Continental Club on South Congress, a new art exhibit on the once gritty East Side — the biggest buzz lately is coming from the 2nd Street District, a recently designated three-by-two block area in a formerly unglamorous part of downtown.

The district, bordered by Colorado and San Antonio Streets, is chockablock with boutiques, coffeehouses, wine bars and design stores and is anchored by a mixed-use development across from City Hall. It contains is a 36-story W hotel and condo tower, which opened last December, and the state-of-the-art Moody Theater, the new home of the iconic PBS music series “Austin City Limits.” (It had long outgrown its beloved but itty-bitty studio on the University of Texas campus.) In addition to show tapings, the 2,700-seat theater will also host concerts — the local legend Willie Nelson kicked off its February grand opening with two sold-out gigs.

Pre- or post-show, Trace, a farm-to-table restaurant at the W, packs them in with the chef Paul Hargrove’s cooking, much of which is supplied by the on-staff forager Valerie Broussard, who works with local farms like Springdale and Rain Lily. In the hotel’s salon-style Living Room, or the red-walled Secret Bar, you’ll find Dell execs, Texas state legislators, indie filmmakers and U.T. grad students sipping Deep Eddy sweet tea vodka. The 251 rooms, some with Lady Bird Lake views, come with plenty of high-tech gadgets as well as black-and-white photos of musicians who’ve graced the ACL stage.

Another hot spot is Lambert’s, an upscale barbecue joint with a popular upstairs music club opened by Louis Lambert, the brother of Liz Lambert, who owns Austin’s coolest boutique hotels. There’s also La Condesa, a favorite of Edward Norton and Jessica Alba, with modern Mexican dishes (including an excellent snapper ceviche) and Austin’s longest list of tequilas. A few blocks east are the city’s most celebrated culinary additions. Locals were ecstatic when the chef David Bull, who cut his teeth at the Driskill and Dallas’ Stoneleigh Hotel, went out on his own with not one but two restaurants: Second Bar & Kitchen, whose small plates, craft beers and see-and-be-seen terraces made it a gathering spot during SXSW; and Congress, Bull’s temple to fine dining with three- and seven-course tasting menus. The design is highlighted by cream-colored chairs, Brazilian cherry-wood floors and dramatic chandeliers, but the focus is squarely on the food, which could include osetra caviar with carrot-citrus mousse or garlic-and-chive potato gnocchi with braised oxtail. And since the menu is seasonal, fans are looking to see what Bull, not unlike Austin itself, will come up with next.